Stripper Web, forum for adult entertainers, shutters after 20 years

Stripper Web, an online forum for exotic dancers, webcam models and online sex workers, announced this week that it is closing on February 1 stating that stripping the site was a “difficult decision.”

Stripper Web’s interface, which includes a pink color scheme and a silhouette of a woman standing in front of a spider web, is reminiscent of any early 2000’s chat forum.

Popular discussion topics include Stripping, Newbie Board (for people new to adult entertainment), Club Chat (where dancers can share their experiences in IRL strip and exotic dance rooms), and Camming Connection “. a thread to connect webcam models and those interested in participating. Posts on Stripper Web can be viewed with or without creating an account on the site.

Based on interviews conducted by the Daily Dot, it’s unclear who first created Stripper Web.

Stripper Web’s closure sparked a discussion on Twitter Monday a tweet by Marla Cruz the next day via the website’s statement went viral.

“The depth of knowledge and advice on this forum is priceless!” tweeted Cruz, who describes herself as a stripper and sex worker. “An immense community and cultural loss for dancers, especially new girls, looking for a solid resource to get started.”

According to Stripper Web’s farewell post, the site has been active for “over 20 years.” In an interview with the Daily Dot, Cruz said she started using the site in late 2017 when she was interested in auditioning for work at strip clubs. When she first got hired the next year, Stripper Web was the first place she looked for resources: Having no friends in the exotic dance community at the time, Cruz needed tips and tricks from people who knew the industry .

“I read about how rampant prostitution was at my club and, more importantly, how to stay safe and maintain my personal boundaries in such a cutthroat environment,” Cruz told the Daily Dot. “Stripper Web’s most important contribution to the sex work community is teaching thousands of us how to work safely, especially when club management had no interest in ensuring our safety.”

Speaking of club chat, Cruz said she was able to launch class action lawsuits that affected clubs where she worked.

Other adult entertainers like Kate Alexis used Stripper Web for advice on webcam modeling, aka camming. Kate, who now works as an OnlyFans creator and sells adult video clips online, told the Daily Dot that she joined Stripper Web in 2011 when she first discovered webcamming and was “clueless”. She says luckily the camming connection discussion thread brought her up to speed.

“I’ve read EVERYTHING [on that discussion thread] and literally learned everything I needed to know about the different main camera sides,” Kate told the Daily Dot. “This site was literally worth its weight in gold.”

Kate also worked as a moderator for the site, which she felt was hectic because of Stripper Web’s endless activity. Eventually, as social media platforms like Instagram and OnlyFans rose in popularity, she said she “drifted” away from the forums because online sex work was starting to require self-promotion and a large online following.

Efforts to replace — or simply preserve — Stripper Web have already begun. Cruz asked Internet Archive, a non-profit Internet digital library that stores web pages on its popular Wayback Machine service, to archive Stripper Web’s threads and blog posts.

“Our family is dying,” Cruz tweeted in a message to Internet Archive. She also told the Daily Dot that some sex workers rely on The Dancers Resource, which has amassed a following of over 133,000 on Instagram.

In its final announcement, Stripper Web suggested that website traffic can be moved to another online forum run by camgirl and OnlyFans creator AmberCutie called Amber Cutie’s Forum. Their forum hosts threads like “General Cam Chat”, “Ask-A-Model” where webcam models can ask their contemporaries for advice and help, as well as unofficial forums about various video clip providers websites.

Other sex workers with a Twitter presence like TajaEthereal (aka Phatgirldynomite) offer their forums as stripper web alternatives. TajaEthereal’s Cammodel Web forum contains a handful of archived stripper web threads, including “Preserving Your Emotional/Psychological Wellbeing for Strippers”.

TajaEthereal told the Daily Dot that she founded Cammodel Web four years ago because she felt Stripper Web was “unstable”.

“My biggest focus right now is creating a new home that will be familiar to members of the stripper web community,” said TajaEthereal. “I just want to make sure we’re supported in exchange for our content.”

She added that she loves Stripper Web and is “proud” of everyone who has contributed to it over the years.

Cruz told the Daily Dot that no matter where the sex work community goes in the post-stripper web era, “sex workers are resilient in these times because we have to be.”

“There will always be a need for community knowledge,” Cruz said of the community. “And there will always be sex workers creating new spaces for ourselves.”

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